Last full day in Sweden .

Another very good European breakfast, could get used to this.

Off to Gavle. Why Gavle? In 1875 Daniel Andersson moved from Grangarde to this port city and join the seaman's house (union).
The train trip took about 68 minutes. We got the cheaper commuter train, it stopped t every little town. Did meet an expat Englishman who now lives in a small town/village just outside Uppsala. It was interesting talking to him....he really likes Sweden..has been back to UK, but couldn't wait to get back.
Gavle is a small town right on the coast, it used to be the third busiest port in Sweden (late 1880's-early 1900's). Around 1869 it had a very big fire-burnt down most of the town.

After a small walk of around 1.5 km's we found the information centre-I think the woman manning it was surprised to get visitors. The actual centre was once a petrol station/tire shop. It still has the gas pumps that work-only you need a credit cards.

We were provided a self guided map and notes. Of we went. Unfortunately the museums were closed, even Joe Hill's museum. Now Joe Hill  was born Joel Hagglund in Gavle 1in 1879. In 1902 he moved to the USA and changed his name to Joe Hill. He is known in union circles for his singing songs, writing poems and fighting for workers rights. In 1915 he was convicted of murder (some believe it was a trump up charge) and was executed. Joan Baez wrote and sang a song about him ( I think at Woodstock).

To hear the song google Joe Hill Joan Baez at Woodstock

An old part of town still remains-called Gamla Gefle. Our self guided tour took us through this district.

Overall, we had a good stroll on a warm autumn day, the fall was in full swing. Really enjoyed the day.

Must thank the gentleman who shared his 5 kroner oil to get access to the public toilets (in a shopping mall).

Part of our tour took unto the Gavle Theatre-on the facade they had misspelled Shakespeare and Moliere.

Caught the SJ fast train back to Uppsala -took 45 minutes. Very quick.
so that's it, our last full day in Sweden. Tomorrow we Start our journey back to the Southern Hemisphere and summer.

We have about 7 hours to kill in Uppsala tomorrow, so will focus on Gamla Uppsala and the local sites.

A trip down memory lane

Further to the Swedish Saturday Candy day, it started on a more dark note. Around 1947 the government with support from the Swedish confectionary companies feed institutionalised mental patients an extreme amount of candy over a 2 year period. The aim was to prove that candy /sugar didn't harm you. Well the opposite was proven-mouthful of cavities, all teeth being removed etc. So the Swedes decided to limit the amount of sugar young people should have and hence Candy Saturday came about. In a way this experiment aided the whole world.

Back to today, well we are off to Uppsala and it is a warm sunny day -19 degrees!

The day started well with a very, very good European breakfast-you name it you could have it...I think we did. The hotels here in Sweden have a 12 midday check out, which mean't we could take a 50 minute walk (you can work out how long we lingered over breakfast) around the central part of Vastras.

  The small river that flows through Vasteras-the houses are all that remains of the workers cottages

                  One of the runestones the writing is around the edges

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 The big burial mound in the background with the stone ships

Two of the stone ships-the largest is 50metres long and 16 meters wide

 A very good sculpture depicting workers biking to work for one of the main industrial companies in the town in the 1920's-ASEB I think.

Our first stop of the day were the archaeological ruins at Anundshog. They are made up of burial mounds and stone ships. One of the burial mounds is meant to be the largest in Sweden and dates from around 1500 BP (before present). It has been claimed that it is the resting place of the semi-legendary King Brothers-Anund. Little by way of excavation has taken place.
The stone ships date from late bronze or Iron Age and is associated with burials as well.
vV
One other feature was at this site: The Eriksgatan. A line of rhinestones that marks a path that early kings had to walk to be confirmed by the Swedish nobles (lawmakers). The actual crowning took place in Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala).

From here it was an hour's drive to Uppsala. Stopped for gas-diesel was NZ$5 per litre. Half a tank cost $76.

Now for the memory lane bit. Evan and Becky took us to Flogsta- the student housing they both lived in while studying at Uppsala. The memories they brought back should not be repeated but it seems that a lot of debauchery took place.  But it was good they took us around the buildings and pointed out where they had their rooms etc.

Flogsta building, student accommodation for those attending Uppsala University

 Evans room is the second window from the left. Becky lived a couple of blocks away.

Now it was time for our last pika together, Evan and Becky insisted on a small coffee place in the main square (Torg). Then they had to head back to Arlanda to fly back to London.

                                                The cinnamon buns were big and very fresh

WE checked into the hotel (the same as Regan and I had stayed on our flying visit to see Evan 4 years ago), even if he thinks we stayed at the Radisson Blue.

Went for a quick walk in the evening, ate at Max (Swedish equivalent of MacDonalds), then off for a good nights sleep.

A week of it: what?

So, where to start. Time has flown this week, our last full week of travelling. Currently we are in Uppsala. Having farewelled Evan and Becky (currently flying back to London). So..

lets start with last Saturday. We were in Bath.

Awoke to cold and wet, wet, wet. Went shopping (quickly) for me to buy Ian Rankin's latest novel: "In a House of Lies". Just released. Managed to pick it up from W.H Smiths half price-all 10 pounds (NZ$ 20). To date it has been. good read.

Anyway back to the travel story. Had to leave the accommodation at 11 am, so headed down to the train station. Stopped for a long coffee, then hit the station. Surprise, surprise our train isn't on the departure board. Checked with ticket office...it has been cancelled due to strike action. Thankfully they re-routed us with a 50 minute layover in Sainsbury. Luckily  the train we were taking from there to Clapham Junction arrive 30 minutes early so re retreated to one of the carriages and ate lunch.

On arriving at Evan's place we met with Becky's parents. Very nice people. That evening we all went by overland train to Shoreditch for a a Burmese meal. Interesting?

Sunday: I cooked pancakes, bacon and blueberries for 6. As Evan said it was his first pancakes for 10 months. Seemed to go well considering the lack of equipment etc.

In the afternoon "she who can not be named" and I went for a walk along the bank of the Thames..crossed over into Chelsea and walked down to the Battersby bridge, then back to the apartment.

Cooked everybody enchiladas (double batch) for supper. The second batch were to be used for Becky's and Evans lunch the next day.

Monday: "she who can not be named" and I set of to Notting Hill and the Portobello markets. Nothing to really tempt us...just lots of tourist like us gawking. So, off to Oxford circus (we are really good with the tube etc nonplus Google maps). "She who can not be named" did a wee bit of shopping at this very large clothing store....mind boggling the amount of clothing being bought. I retreated to the in-house coffee shop to wait it out.

Got back to Evans, then we (minus Becky) went of to a local pub -The Ship for supper.

That's it - tomorrow we head to Sweden.

Tuesday: Evan and Becky had a 9 am flight so they headed off to Gatwick around 6 am. We slept in as our flight wasn't until 12;50 pm.

All went well. Flight was good. Being in row 4 we were quickly off the plane, immigration was stamp your passport and off you go.

The trip in from Arlanda airport was very quick-The Arlanda express goes from the airport to the central station in 20 minutes-hitting 187 amp. Which is fast.

Now things started to go a little of plan. Firstly trying to find the place to buy the 7 day transport pass -it took 2 attempts and a couple of flights of stairs. And, secondly the need to get a number, then wait until your number is called. Took a few minutes for us to work that out. But we got there in the end. By now it was rush hour. People everywhere, busy rushing to take the Tbana or trains and we had to find the right Tbana route to take. We got there, trip was quick. Exiting the station was our downfall...we missed a vital clue..take the lift to the right street..we didn't. We took the escalator and found our selves on the wrong street. Google maps were no help. In fact it took us around the block and we were faced with a steep climb. Language was getting a little rural by now. We sort help from what we thought was a local, turned out to be an American student. He did try to help us. After much huffing and frayed tempers we got there. Hurrah.

Ate local the night and was introduced to how expensive Sweden is SEK 182 for a hamburger -that is NZ$ 31 for one hamburger -fries were extra and coke ( a small coke wasNZ$6). Welcome to Sweden.

Wednesday: quick trip into downtown Stockholm for  2 hour:15 minutes boat tour of the bridges of Stockholm. It included Ficka ( a social event of sharing coffee and cinnamon bun). The trip as a welcome to Stockholm was well worth the cost as it gave a good introduction to the capital.

                                                               
                                                                Old Stockholm -Gamalstan

In the afternoon we went on a walking tour of old Stockholm - Gamla Stan. Again very informative and yes to those who know I didn't say a thing. I just looked and listened.

The good thing about having Evan and Becky along is we got to eat at places we didn't know existed in parts of Stockholm we would not have visited. One of the places was a great Mexican selling street tacos...standing room only... very hard to get a table and especially a table for 4. I also learnt another valuable lesson -tax on beer -if you beer or wine is above 1% alcohol level you pay a 25% consumption tax...now that hurt. Now I understand why most locals were drinking tap water.

Thursday: Had a full day at Skansen -what a great museum..would recommend it. It contains 150 old building from around Sweden, with them representing the different regions of Sweden. They also had people dressed in the suitable time period and provided a great deal of interesting information.
Skansen also had a zoo that contained the animals of the regions. So we got to see brown bears, moose, otters etc
It was a full day but very enjoyable.
From Skansen we caught a ferry over to Gamla Stan (all part of ur 7 day travel pass).

                                                         Inside a 1920 hardware store

                                                        The iceman delivering the ice

That night Becky and Evan took us to another part of Stockholm -part Tbana and lots of walking. But once again well worth it.

Friday: Evan and Becky went up to Uppsala to walk down memory lane. We took a rural train and bus to Sigtuna. Sigtuna was established in 900 AD. Very quite, old place. But well worth the visit. Nice sunny, warm day. Why we even sat on the shores of Lake Malaren and tried to have Picks-Just coffee they didn't have the cinnamon buns -buggar. Coffee without a cinnamon roll just isn't the same.

                                                    The only shopping street in Sigtuna

                                                           Ruins of a 13th C church

Aunty Browns Cafe-housed in some of the oldest buildings ( 2 houses) in Sigtuna

The evening meal was pizza..once again a mystery tour courtesy of Becky and Evan. Just picture then striding off into the distance while the poor old folks are almost running to keep up with them. Just like running a marathon.

Saturday: Left Stockholm, picked our rental car and headed inland to Grangarden (birth place of my great grandfather Daniel Andersson). As it turned out Evan had a friend from Uppsala days living in a town near by -Lidvika. Evan had stayed there a couple of times..so quite a coincidence that he was only 10 minutes from Grangarde.
On our arrival at Johann's (Evan's friend) we found out we were elected for lunch. Swedish meatballs (they had been preparing them all morning). So at around 2 pm we had a full lunch. Johann's father and stepmother were gracious hosts. On learning of my quest, they swing into action, tried making phone calls to help me find my Great-Great grandfathers grave at the church. No luck.

The town was great, big church, lakes on both sides of a small piece of land. The graveyard was enormous. Very well cared for. The fall leaves were everywhere. I had a party of 4 helping me, which I am grateful for..but in the end gave up and drove back to Johann's parents house for Fika.. lovely.

We just talked to about 5.30 pm.
Still had 100 km's to drive for the nights stay..so off we went.

The roads in Sweden are great to drive, well signposted, on the freeway -110 amp. On the smaller rural roads -anywhere between 70 and 90 kph-with plenty of speed cameras (all well sign posted).

We stayed the night at Vasteras -great hotel. Very old (1900) but very well presented.

Tomorrow Uppsala.
Quick note: Evan is a great chauffeur and Becky a very good navigator -with the aid of Google.
The car a VW Tigan, I consider a very good car, if diesel.

Footnote: At Johann's we meet his little step sister and the Swedish tradition of candy day. Alice speaks very little or no English because she isn't old enough yet. She introduced us to a Swedish tradition Candy or sweets Saturday. Every Saturday kids buy big bags of sweets and eat it all day. Saturday is the only day. On average Swede consumers eat 17 Kg's of sweets every year. Alice was full of sugar and was into everything. She made us a card before we left - something we appreciated.

Off to see the Roman Bath's

Bath day, off to see the Roman bath's, the reason Bath exists. Started in 64AD. The mineral (heated water) makes its way to the surface along a crustal fracture. The self guided tour was well worth the cost of admission. Very goo holographs.

Had lunch at Sally Lunn's..where the Sally Lunn bread comes from. The recipe dates back to the 1400's. The recipe stays with the building, so when the building is sold, the new owners inherit the recipe. They have a museum, as part of the shop. The custodian informed us that in the early 1900's the then owner migrated to either NZ or Australia and voila we got our version of the Sally Lunn. The difference between NZ's and the original is the original doesn't have icing and coconut shavings on top and raisins in the bread.

The afternoon was spent sitting in the sun on the river Avon (one of 6 or 7 river Avons in the UK). Meet a pug called Noah. His owner runs a store called "Pugs and Puffins", which we visited later in the day.

Saw there was an hour river cruise. So we went, nice and relaxing.

Got back, visited "Pugs and Puffins". Then bak to the BnB.

                                             No, not ancient, sculpture by Victorian artist

                                                    Out of sequence..on the river cruise.

                                                                 The actual Roman baths

                                                 The Bath Abbey from the Roman baths

Big stones or glacial erratics?

Off on a day's tiki tour. The itinerary is: Stonehenge, Avebury (more stones), Lacock and Castle Combe (the last two are historic English villages).

Arrive just after opening at Stonehenge (only two tour buses-when we left 2 hours later, there were tour buses for miles (mainly containing asian tourists). Any it was cold walking around the hanger; mist and a cold wind. Interesting.
Geologically the stones are made up of two types; local sandstone and volcanic (from Wales). Around Stonehenge there was plenty of burial mounds (barrows), some have been explored, by Victorian archeologists looking for valuable items, the others remain undisturbed.
Cant get too close to the actual stones, but just walk around the circumference listening to your self guided talking machine...not really that impressed. Ok, they were neolithic and it took some effort to move them great distances and set them upright. However, a glacial episode would move the size boulders easily, and given the "blue stones" are from Wales, they would be considered glacial erratics. Mind you they didn't show the signs of being moved by glaciers, so will have to accept the stated theory.

Next stop, more stones. The time Avesbury. Set in the middle of which is a road and a pub. This time you are free to walk amongst them, touching them. It also had a big henge-a moat or ditch surrounding the stones. By it was sunny and not crowded (the tour buses don't come here), so it was an enjoyable 40 minutes. by the way we were in Wiltshire.

Now it was off to Lacock-95% of the village is owned by the English Heritage Trust-so nothing changes. Yes it waa a quaint village, somewhat spoiled by the many cars parked outside the houses etc. Apart from it's ancient quaintness its other claim to fame is it has been used by TV and film companies as a location. One street was in one of the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey (the film).. Our tiki tour included a walking tour, which was informative. Plus it was sunny and warm, why we even had an ice cream.

Last stop of the day Castle Combe. By now we were in the Cotswolds. Another small quaint village located in a small valley. Film set for the original Dr Doolittle (a musical filmed 1967).
Then it was back to Bath, and sleep on the couch.

An interesting day.

Time for (a) Bath

Today we took the train from Clapham Junction to Bath -about 2 hours. Started with a little confusion...no train to Bath on the departure board..sort help, sorted. Then the train is to divid in Salisbury...with half going on to Bristol and Bath and the other half who knows where... finally got it sorted..and off we go.

Arrived in Bath, sunny and very warm,. Great.
Found our airBnB settled in and went exploring..found the home of the Sally Lunn. Used to eat these all the time at school and uni. Will need to go back and visit the pace, it has a museum.

.
Now it was time to "take the waters", after all this home to the Roman baths. Water is heated subsurface and follows a fault to the surface, creating a hydro spring. While you can't bath in the Roman spa, you can in the 21st Century equivalent; the Thermae Bath Spa. She who cannot be named was quiet dean to pay it a visit. It costs 44 pounds per person for a 2 hour session. We really enjoyed the experience, especially outdoors on the roof top spa watching the sun set. They have a whole level dedicated to sauna's. Something we discovered towards the end of our session. Overall a great night.

Now, something about our accommodation. We are on the first level of 18th Century Georgian (grade 11) house. It was built around 1765.
Tomorrow we are off on a day tour that includes Stonehenge ,so an early start.

                                                                 Our digs

                                                Pulteney bridge, shops on both sides.

Our day in Glasgow

This morning our bodies rebelled, refused to walk the usual many Km's...so we decided to try the hop-off-hop-on bus instead.

Not a good day to be riding upstairs in the open-many layers on plus raincoats and beanies...so off we went. Our first hop off was at the Riverside Museum. This is a great technology museum and it's free. All public museums are free in Glasgow. Now that saved us exercising the wallet.
As we entered the museum we were approached by a guide, to enquire if we needed help. During the conversation he invited us to join his small group (3 Canadians-meant to be 4, but one of the guys had lost his wife in the museum). The guide was a fountain of knowledge, I for one was really glad to have joined the group.
I would recommend the street go Glasgow (late 19th Century) display...it was great, pubs where mean only could drink, street cars, old ford's etc. What was especially impressive was the reconstruction of the Glasgow underground. Glasgow was the third city in the world to get underground (after London and Budapest), some time the late 1800's. It was different in terms of driving mechanism...London had steam driven cars. Glasgow adopted the San Francisco street car method of cables. The driver would engage a clamp to attach to the cable and off it would go (at around 30 mph). The actual stops were on level ground (with an incline leading up to the platform), all the driver had to do was dis-engage the clamp and coast into the station. The underground was just one circular route, same as today.

                                      A street tram or car, no it was not named Desire. The driver had to stand at the front, exposed to all types of weather.

  Just a bad photo of the 18th century Glasgow street scene.

The museum is highly recommended. So must technology. well worth more than the  2 hours we gave it.

Just moored outside was a late 18th century iron sailing ship -Glenfell. Building on the Clyde in the early 1890's. The hull was made out f iron beams etc. It traded the world carrying coal, guano, wheat etc. It was later brought and used by the Spanish Navy as a training ship. Then in 1970's it was purchased by Glasgow council and bought back to the Clyde. Well worth an hour or so to look it over.

 A view of the Clyde River, very little shipbuilding taking place now. I think there is only one ship building company operating.

Now it time to hope on the bus again...weather still cold and miserable..so sat downstairs.

Next stop-The Peoples Place. A museum dedicated to life Glasgow from the late 1800's to the mid 1960's. It focussed on life in the tenements.The living arrangement was one large room with an inset for the bed. So a whole family had to live there. Three families shared the floor, with an outside toilet. The kids played on the landings, stairwells or in the streets. Apparently they enjoyed the close social interactions that eventuated. The People's Place is also highly recommended as a place to visit.

By now it was close to 4.30 pm and the last hop-on-off bus to run. So we headed back to George's Square and our hotel. The hotel every night offers wine and as much cheese a you want to eat. I took a particular liking to one cheek (no need yo say any more). That evening we tried out Jamie's (Jamie Olivers chain) Italian restaurant. The food was OK.

That's it..tomorrow we fly to Gatwick and stay the night with Even and Becky.

Edinburgh, Arthurs seat and the Salisbury Craigs

Friday, nice sunny but cool day. Just the day to climb up to Arthur's seat. Arthur's seat is a the remainder of a 360 my volcano and the Salisbury Craig is the volcanic sill. It is here where James Hutton formulated the"Theory of the Earth"-he is considered the father of geology. So it was great to see where the subject I enjoy became a reality.
The walk up started well, just follow the path then road. Then it got demanding, but hey, we managed it and were rewarded with great 360 degree view of Edinburgh and its environs. Must mention while it was sunny, the wind was cols-had a wind chill factor of around 5 or 6 degrees. Thankfully we had the sense to put on thermals.

After this we worked our way down to a small village "Duddingston" which is the home of "The Sheep Heid Inn". This is a 14th Century Inn, one of the oldest in Scotland. Too ealy for lunch or a beer so settled for a 'cup o tea'. But alas no scones.

From here we explored the old Kirk and graveyard of  Duddington. Now they had a small cafe that sold scones. However, she who can not be named thought it was too early.

We then walked around Holyrood park back to town. We were aiming for the Scottish Parliament and the Royal Holyrood house (Scottish residence for the queen).
Didn't make it!!!!
Somewhere along the way we took a few wrong turns and ended up somewhere....anyway had a quick stop of lunch then headed for the port. I forgot to mention we had brought an all day bus ticket, so was out to use it. After a couple of bus changes we made it to Ocean terminal- to visit the HMY Britannia. Turned to be an interesting tour-they even had a garage on the boat for the Rolls.

Following this it was bus back to Princes Street and a well earned rest for some very weary legs and sore feet.


Saturday was to be Carlton Hill day. Not nearly as strenuous but enjoyable. Weather was overcast with cold winds again...thank-goodness for thermals. Anyway, there were a collection of different building, monuments and ruins...all celebrating something Scottish.   See below

  This was meant to be a monument to all the Scottish soldiers who died in the Napoleonic wars. However, they ran out of money. Go figure.  It is called 'The National Monument. Started in 1826 but money ran out in 1829. It has the nickname- "Scotland's Disgrace".

 This is a monument to Nelson. Nelson won the naval battle of Trafalgar

                                                          Dugald Stewart Monument.
From here we headed to the Palace of Holyroodhouse- the official residence of the British monarch. Decided not to venture in..surprise, surprise.

Walked up the royal mile... heading to Edinburgh Castle..detoured to Edinburgh museum..interesting.

Tried to book for Real Mary King's Close... only booking available was at 8.30 pm that night..no thanks.
Unfortunately no tours on Sunday..so that's the end of that idea.

Sunday: Off to Glasgow we go

Got to Waverley and proceeded to buy train tickets...ended up buying returns rather than singles. Oh well another donation to Scottish Rail.
The trip was quick. The train moved at 100 mph..now that is quick. Took only 53 minutes to get to Glasgow.
Too early to check in, so dropped our bags and went to Glasgow Cathedral -also called the High Kirk of Glasgow. This is meant to be the resting place of Saint Mungo and apparently he is in the lower crypt The church is one of the few Scottish medieval churches (it is Gothic architecture).

Started to rain, so we headed for the Glasgow necropolis. This is a Victorian cemetery. 50,000 individuals are reputed to be buried here. The necropolis represents the wealth of the period (tobacco, grains etc). To get to the cemetery you have to cross a bridge - 'Bridge of Sighs" - no not the Venice bridge but this was associated with the funeral processions.

From here it was back to the hotel and a welcome rest break.